View SlideshowRequest to buy this photoTom Dodge | DISPATCHDoug Denny, owner of the Fish Guys at the North Market, pushes a cart to the loading dock. Columbus will spend $1.2 million on the market’s ventilation.

Customer complaints about cooking odors in the North Market have prompted Columbus to spend $1.2
million on a new ventilation system, but city officials want the nonprofit group that oversees the
building to rely less on public help.

The Downtown market has needed a replacement for its ventilation system for years as more stalls
prepare food instead of just selling ingredients. Customers, especially lunch-time professionals,
have complained that the odors cling to them the rest of the day.

The market does not have the proper ventilation hoods over some restaurants, said Matthew Hall,
board president of the North Market Development Association.

“Some people love the smells, and some people hate them,” he said. “We need to provide some
merchants who prepare food with the proper ventilation.”

The city is using money from its capital budget and not its daily operating budget to pay for
the project.

Most of the work on the ventilation system will be done at night, but some vendors might be
temporarily relocated during the work, Hall said. The project is to be completed by October.

The city has supported the market for years and leases the publicly owned building to the
nonprofit group for $1 a year. That 20-year lease is to expire in 2015, and city officials believe
that the market should agree to take on more of the costs of maintaining the building.

Some years, the city has helped with operating money. City officials say that, when necessary,
they will continue to sustain the board that manages the market and its 32 vendors. But the city is
asking the group to beef up its cash reserves for future building improvements.

“We understand the constraints the market has, but we feel they do not have an adequate amount
of money set aside to do these things,” said Paul Rakosky, Columbus’ finance director. “We want
them to have a better reserve because, as the building ages, we are going to have things to deal
with.”

Hall said the board is developing a plan and considering how to raise capital. Options include
raising rent prices for vendors, asking for corporate donations, holding more fundraising events
and leaning on successful market alumni for help.

The market’s governing body has about $385,000 in cash reserves and savings, according to its
most-recent filing with the IRS.

Over the past several years, it has spent about as much money as it brings in through rental and
parking fees. The largest expenses are for improving the interior of the building.

The nonprofit group spends about $200,000 a year on salaries and benefits and roughly $150,000
on marketing. Its revenue comes mostly from $650,000 in rent and fee payments from vendors and
about $375,000 from the rear parking lot.

Hall said the philosophy has been to break even and, up until now, has not focused on
fundraising.

The market’s new executive director, Rick Harrison Wolfe, has been charged with finding more
money.

“We haven’t had to do a real capital campaign, and that’s what we are looking at now,” Hall
said. He said the market might need to expand and open other locations “just like businesses with
successful brands.”

City officials are also encouraging market officials to use the city’s purchasing power to buy
materials at a cheaper price.

Rakosky called the market a “successful community asset.”

“The market is part of our overall strategy for economic development,” he said, “and to have a
successful and vibrant city, you need to have something like it.”